A look at three paintings from the cusp of the 20th century that make a powerful argument for beauty.

When in 2014 the Getty Museum acquired Édouard Manet’s “Jeanne (Spring)”(1881), it commissioned a three-lecture series and invited the art historian Richard Brettell to be the first speaker. He, in turn, has now expanded his published version of those discussions to deal also with two other late 19th-century paintings in the Getty collection, Paul Gauguin’s still life “Arii matamoe (La fin royale)”(1892) and Paul Cézanne’s “Young Italian Woman at a Table” (1895-1900).

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Penland is a national center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Penland offers one-, two-, and eight-week workshops in books & paper, clay, drawing, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, and wood.

First of its Kind, the Groundbreaking National Exhibition Opens Sept. 14 in Miami and will Headline Art Basel

As celebrants across the nation honor the 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall Uprisings, in the heart of Pride month the Frost Art Museum FIU announces Miami will be one of only three cities in the U.S. to host Art After Stonewall: 1969 ─ 1989. The major exhibition of more than 200 works opens in Miami on September 14, and due to its size and scope will encompass the entire second floor of the museum, including the Grand Galleries.

Muralist and new mom Lauren Pallotta Stumberg walked past The Edge construction site every day while she and her son strolled through their Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. She eventually gathered the courage to cold call the apartment complex’s property manager and propose a mural for the nine-story wall facing Edgewood Avenue.

City issues call for artists for River Arts District public art project

The City is continuing to implement the River Arts District (RAD) Public Art Plan.

The City of Asheville and the Public Art and Cultural Commission (PACC) seek qualified artists to submit Letters of Interest in becoming one of three artists asked to submit proposals for a project called Playful Art. When complete, Playful Art will provide an interactive and playful experiential installation for all ages.

From this call for artists, the review committee will choose the top three most qualified artists for this project. Those qualified artists will each be provided with a $250 honorarium to develop two project proposals to include a sketch and narrative for a work of art inspired by the theme of “playful art.” The committee is especially interested in work that highlights the location in the River Arts District as well as accessibility, creativity, play, engagement for all ages, and experience. The work could be a sculpture, earth work, or other appropriate and engaging piece to be installed in a park-like setting along the French Broad River East Greenway. It will be visible from public streets and pedestrian walkways, free of any admission fee.

Funding for this project comes from the City’s 1% for Public Art commitment. To learn more and/or to stay up-to-date with the River Arts District Public Art projects, please visit ashevillenc.gov/publicart or click here.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Monson Dahl, Public Art Program Administrator, at smonson@ashevillenc.gov or 828-337-4111.

Interested in local energy and climate issues? Come to the City of Asheville’s Climate Resource Guide release and Renewable Energy Initiative community update.

Set for 5 to 7 p.m. June 19 at The Collider, 1 Haywood St., Fourth Floor, the City’s Office of Sustainability and the Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) will share information on how — as a community and individually — we can become better prepared and more resilient to the effects of climate change. The event will feature the release of “Building a Climate-Resilient Asheville — Personal Action Guide.”

Asheville has a history of climate-related impacts — major floods in 1916 and 2004, landslides, nuisance flooding, wildfires, and the record drought of 2007–2008, to name a few. The city is also facing other stressors, like pressures from population growth, increasing demand for city services, economic changes, land use issues, and the desire to preserve a sense of place. Click here to continue reading

Asheville was recognized during the 2019 N.C. GIS Conference in Winston-Salem. City Council officials received the award during their May 14 meeting.

GIS is a geographic information system used as a framework for gathering, managing and analyzing data.

The GIS team worked with the Equity & Inclusion office to map and record some of Asheville’s history around race. This included mapping out areas where red-lining and urban renewal occurred. They also crowd-sourced African American history, displacement and neighborhood change.

The City of Asheville is a member of the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE) and is able to use its resources and network to continue learning and advancing racial equity goals in Asheville. “In order for transformation to occur, an understanding of our racialized history is required,” said Kimberlee Archie, Director of Equity and Inclusion for the City of Asheville. “There are specific past and current policies, procedures, practices, and budget decisions that result in disparate outcomes by race. A mapping tool such as this is critical for us to use for change to occur.” Click here to continue reading

Produced by Mariska Hargitay and HBO, I AM EVIDENCE exposes the shocking number of untested rape kits in the United States today. Despite the power of DNA to solve and prevent crimes, hundreds of thousands of kits containing potentially crucial DNA evidence languish untested in police evidence storage rooms.

This is an experience that touches the heart and soul – not to be missed!

This information and pictures are offered by Ed Raiola

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

Saying “A Black Lady Sketch Show” is funny is like announcing an iceberg is cold. Well, of course it is. Convene a cast of seasoned comedians and you’re sure to elicit some laughs. But just as a behemoth block of floating ice has depth and breadth beyond what meets the eye, the new HBO series is more expansive and profound than what you might expect from a half-hour comedy. Created by Robin Thede, who previously hosted “The Rundown,” a late-night BET series brimming with political and cultural commentary, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” airs this Friday. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

The Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison has a voice like a warm blanket, and it spreads across the documentary “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” irresistibly; when it’s over, you feel like a beloved friend has left the room. In Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ film, Morrison is seated squarely facing the camera and speaking to it, while the other voices in the film – friends, fellow writers, critics, academics – are shot at a more traditional angle. The result is an intimate directness, a sense of a genuine conversation.

What happens when we look more closely, whether with the naked eye or equipment? Incredible details come into focus, bringing with them the possibility of beauty and interest we might never have conceived of. That’s what some scientists and artists have discovered. As a result, a certain kind of artwork has been emerging because of technological advances and a discerning eye. In a winning combination of science and art, what is observed microscopically can be magnified into large images that defy a viewer’s guess as to what they might be. To me, they register as abstract paintings or textile designs. In fact, there are artists using such images to create their own work in these mediums.

Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play. If you don’t give a child food, the damage quickly becomes visible. If you don’t let a child have fresh air and play, the damage is also visible, but not so quickly. If you don’t give a child love, the damage might not be seen for some years, but it’s permanent.

History of the Public Art Program

Starting in the 1970s, people began to notice that Asheville had very little public art compared to other cities around the country. As an outgrowth of the Streetscapes program, the Urban Trail Committee was formed in 1992 to develop a walking art trail highlighting historically important architecture, people and events within downtown Asheville. The Urban Trail became an Asheville treasure and helped show citizens what public art could do for our community. In November of 1998, a group of eighteen concerned citizens came together to form the Public Art Working Group. Many meetings and a great deal of research later, City Council adopted the City’s first Public Art Policy. A newly established Public Art Board started meeting in May of 2000.

Last year, Center for Craft and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with Artspace, a nonprofit real estate developer that focuses on affordable housing, studio, and performance space for artists, to conduct a community-wide survey to assess the needs of area creatives – from individuals to cultural organizations and related businesses.

The landmark survey, taken by 1,265 individuals and 170 organizations, documents the immediate need for affordable spaces for makers, designers, and performers in Asheville. The study found that a majority of artists (86%) and arts organizations (78%) would be interested in renting space in a multi-use arts facility in Asheville, North Carolina (see the full survey results here). Click here to continue reading

5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of these nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B in 1983 at San Francisco General Hospital, their patients, loved ones, and staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being during a time of great uncertainty.